#Evil!Borg mention

[quasi-normalcy]

Things that I SWEAR I'm not making up about the Star Trek franchise:

A shifty alien bartender, his brother, and his nephew were what happened at Roswell

There are three mutually contradictory canonical explanations for what exists at the centre of the Galaxy, none of which are "A fuck-off gigantic black hole"

Two of these things are, respectively, God and the Devil

(The crew got along well enough with the Devil, but Spock had to blow-up God with a torpedo)

One of the most compelling and sympathetic characters in the franchise is a hologram of Professor Moriarty who gained enough self-awareness to realise that he didn't need to be evil just because he was written that way

If you fly too fast, you turn into a salamander

(Said salamanders are actually the inevitable endpoint of human evolution)

The universe is balanced on the back of a giant koala (why is it smiling? What does it know!?)

There have been three separate groups of Space Nazis (not just aliens with a fascist government; literal Nazis with armbands and swastikas)

There are also: two (2) cowboy planets, two (2) planets that are just post-apocalyptic versions of Cold War-era Earth, one (1) planet ruled by Chicago mobsters from the 1920s, and one (1) version of Earth where the Roman Empire never fell

The Roman planet has its own Jesus

There is an anthropological law governing parallel planetary development that holds that planets are likely to recapitulate eras from Earth history

Because of the intervention of an ancient race of ur-humanoids, most sentient races in the galaxy look like human actors with rubber prostheses glued to their foreheads

There are so many planets centred around sex and hedonism that people in the fandom use the term "Roddenberry Sex Planet" to describe them

Jack the Ripper was an alien ghost

Amelia Earhart was abducted by aliens

If you have a high ESP score, you turn into a god when you try to fly outside of the Galaxy

The major antagonists are: Space Vikings/Samurai, Space Romans (not the Romans mentioned earlier), Space Fascists (not any of the nazi groups mentioned earlier), the Space British Empire (ruled by goo people), and Space Bees (except you'll turn into one if they sting you)

Klingons have two dicks

Borg assimilation can be catalyzed by eating car batteries

[defira85]

With the proviso that I have not finished the game and I in a really shitty mood about my Rook's body type breaking in the romance cut scene specifically, I have thoughts-

I saw a post that said that Veilguard is so fundamentally determined to say nothing that sometimes it comes out as incredibly offensive with just how aggressively noncommittal it is

and that's really it, isn't it

Shadow Dragon Rook got into trouble for saving slaves, and the Viper is a vigilante saving slaves, but we never SEE any slavery. We see poverty and abuse, but there's no talk about the rigid castes within Tevinter. Maybe the Venatori were drawn primarily from the lower classes of mages, those without family seats in the Magisterium, who were drawn to the promise that they could accumulate power instead of being trapped in a system that dooms them to failure and looks down its nose at them for being born not important enough

Tevinter's whole thing across the series has been slavery!!! And we get one or two codex entries about how Dorian gave such a nice speech about "slavery bad :c" and that's it

The Crows are so utterly toothless. Just an aggressively white-washed cool vigilante group, no hint of their child abuse or slavery practices, where's the acknowledgement that they make a lot of their money from slavery?

Lucanis' year in solitary confinement and torture is just window dressing. Again, haven't finished the game, but no examination of it at all 45 hours in. There's so much literature about what solitary confinement does to a person, how it's a form of torture, and just thinking about how much of Zevran's past abuses were woven into his characterisation so carefully... it's like chalk and cheese

Davrin once again filling the role of Bioware's obligatory "elf who hates being an elf and aggressively denies all elven heritage" companion

And like... every mini villain is just someone who was too ambitious and that made them eeeeevil. All the companions' rivals get dropped on Rook without any build-up, no casual conversations to say "oh I had this ex-friend/rival/foe who shaped me". Maybe I've been spoiled by Baldur's Gate 3 and how carefully all of the companions' abusers were woven into who they were as a character and how it shaped them and their story. Gortash didn't just come out of nowhere, Karlach was mentioning him in chapter 1! There were codex entries about him to be found weeks before you met him! But who the fuck is Johanna Hezenberouasertrousers or whatever the fuck her name is. She was ambitious, TOO ambitious, so she's evil and Emmrich's mirror. Cyrian joined the Forgotten Ones, and sure the Evanuris turned out to be super evil abusers that all the myths and religion was super wrong about but this is WORSE CYRIAN HOW COULD YOU

Don't get me started on whatever the fuck the game is trying to say about religion and about faith. Gods, it's so mid 2000s atheist edgelord memeing "unfortunately for you.... I have reason and logic on my side....... checkmate religion..." There's no nuance at all!!!!! Just "religion is a lie so faith dies now" no acknowledgement of faith as a cultural force!!! Of CULTURE being shaped by faith!!!! Okay I said don't get me started, I'll stop now

Whatever the fuck they're doing with the Qunari. They really just have gone back to their incredibly racist roots of "islamic borg" as David Gaider called it but they've made it even more offensive by making them all so... I don't know what word I'm looking for is, but it's about the sex appeal. How they've got their entire chiselled asses out. They look like they're trying to take part in Mister Bodybuilder Treviso, not a vaguely regimented army that was incredibly carefully structured up until about 5 minutes ago

This was more than what I intended to write lmfao. It's a fun game! I'm enjoying myself, as a fun action RPG. But after Baldur's Gate 3, it's just so utterly spineless. It has nothing to say. Evil people are evil, good people are good. It doesn't take a stand about anything. It is so determined not to be offensive to anyone at all that I find it gross

I'll finish it, and then I'll go back to BG3

[grave-buster]

WAIT THEY GAVE VOLKOV A DAUGHTER????? fuck now i need to know more. i don't care abt neo-borg but i'm like the only volkov enjoyer so now i'm super curious. also i'm planning a beyblade women tournament and i'm gonna have 2 put her in the preliminaries

YESS THEY DID. Here's a link to Aoki's colored illustration of her: http:// sakura2factory.web.fc2.com/image/regina20201209.jpg (remove the space after http://)

Her name is Regina Hase, and she is the final antagonist of Beyblade RISING. The first female last boss in Beyblade plastic gen.

I can't recall rn if she directly states, "I'm Volkov's daughter" but I'm very sure she's his daughter (people in the Japanese fandom also seem to think this).

Edit: Okay yeah it's confirmed, she even calls him Father. My memory is very hazy XD

She runs a beyblade gambling ring, DBB. Initially, she disguises herself as Volkov, until Yuriy realizes she's not really him. She was also the one who got Yuriy kicked from the World Championships by circulating videos of Yuriy being all "muahahah I am so evil" while destroying beyblades. She also tried to ruin Takao's reputation by tricking him into battling at DBB and broadcasting it, falsely claiming that Takao is also a DBB blader. She defeats Takao, and gives Yuriy a hard time until Takao joins in on the match and helps Yuriy defeat her.

She has purple hair like Volkov (her long hair is a wig btw, her real hair is very short), and calls herself 'Volkov's heir' at one point, I think. Her nationality is stated as "German-Russian" in a page in the manga, and since her mother Emilia is shown to be German, I think it's safe to say she gets the 'Russian' part from Volkov. She meets Volkov after being defeated by Yuriy and Takao. She talks to him, and at one point Volkov mentions how Regina's anger upon being defeated is just like her Mother's.

Instead of leaving with Volkov, she decides to go her own way.

Later, it is shown she opens the Deustche Beyblade Liga, DBL with her mother. Also, beyblade RISING is very parenthood-centric. A lot of the characters have their parents shown, and some of the plot involves their parents as well. I think it's safe to say Volkov is her father.

Her bit beast is the rabbit Wolpertinger from German Folklore. It is said to live in Bavarian forests. Her launcher is a crossbow launcher like Brooklyn's, although it is handheld rather than worn on the arm. Her last name 'Hase' also means Hare/Rabbit in German, similar to how 'Volkov' means Wolf in Russian.

I think I already described what her beyblade is like, right?

I love how it looks! It took me two years to realize there are two rabbit heads on the lower part. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the way the spikes work. It's a bit too over the top, even for beyblade XD A toned down version of it would be amazing tho!

I also find it interesting that Regina is the one who wears Volkov's iconic mask in RISING, while Volkov himself wears an eyepatch here, presumably from losing an eye? It feels as though he 'passed the torch' to his daughter.

Thanks for the ask! I'm happy to see anyone show interest in Regina. Also, your beyblade women championship sounds amazing!! I'd love to know more about it.

Edit 2: I removed the image and added a link to it on Aoki's site instead, for the longest time I thought you couldn't share links to his illustrations either? But now I saw a post explaining you can.

[kazukazuhas]

˗ˏˋ ꒰ 💌 ꒱ old friends, lloyd garmadon.┊ ˚➶ ｡˚ ☁️

˗ˏˋ ꒰ 💌 ꒱ act two ;; scene three┊ ˚➶ ｡˚ ☁️

  ୧ ⎯⎯ RECAP

୧ ⎯⎯ WARNINGS ;; one (1) suicide joke ;; mentions of ill treatment // discrimination ;; unspoken trauma ;; ninjago lore but it’s vague asf ;; some pining

  ୧ ⎯⎯ NOTES ;; so, this is more on the filler chapter side of this but this breakdowns down the lore of this au too! (that an i need a filler before i drop some twists <33) +skylor's verified for the hell of it (because she runs the noddle empire–)

  ୧ ⎯⎯ PREVIOUS ┊MASTERLIST┊NEXT

  ୧ ⎯⎯ 2 IMAGES ;; TEXT ;; 1 IMAGE [CLICK FOR BETTER QUALITY]

  finally, you flop down onto your bed with a relieved sigh, burying your face into the sheets of the slightly cold blankets and humming happily. finally, that sad week in the hospital passed –though it only passed so quickly was because of lloyd bugging you for most of it (with the occasional appearance of another one of your new friends, and several video calls from your parents and friends back at home). maybe it wasn’t so sad when that ball of sunshine– lloyd was around.

�� so far you’ve learnt many things about this city (and surprisingly you were somehow ignorant to all of some of it’s sometimes worldwide news).

  there were literally ninja superheroes, one of which –the green one– saved your ass from being robbed and injured, worst case killed. they had been around for several years at this point and did multiple patrol runs daily. not only did they stop major threats, they helped out in the community. 

  the secret ninja force; named by the public such because the ninja are incredibly secretive about their personal lives and identities (which was called for because they are superheroes), consists of six people.

  the green ninja is the leader with some weird green power. the water ninja is one of the two tech heavy heroes in the city, having a close resemblance to a samurai while having that ninja aesthetic. the blue (or lightning) ninja earned his title as the human –are they even human?– plasma ball; while the earth ninja could probably throw a whole building at someone. they earned the title of the strongest. the white ninja (a nindroid?) is the master of ice, and probably the most deceiving of them as one of the sweetest people; albeit a little morally grey, you’ll ever meet despite the cold presence he has. then the red ninja is the most open one of the lot, the master of fire and swords –hey, there's a lot of skill before his wielding.

  the ninja also had a goddamn flying ship named the destiny’s bounty.

  there’s also samurai x, having the largest panel of debate on whether they’re a guy or lady. they’re the other tech heavy hero in ninjago, following in the footsteps of the previous samurai x who later became the water ninja. you have your suspicion that it might be cyrus borg’s daughter and assistant, pixal. (it was one of hell of a ride when you found out that pixal was actually a robot– nindroid despite her human-like appearance. well, the more you know.)

  and well, elemental masters aren’t much of a surprise to you –not when your aunt was one. master of something, you don’t remember too well what it was; just that either skylor might inherit it or it would skip her and possibly manifest in her kids. or you might get it, and frankly that would be sick. but it looks like neither of you did, atleast you choose to believe that instead.

  you turn, laying on your side and staring out the window, watching the quiet streets and city through the clear glass with an unfocused attention on it. lloyd’s words on his father stuck in your head, you were curious about him.

  you heard of all sorts of things about ninjago before moving here, things you chalked up as elaborate stories before he confirmed it all to you. 

  stories of overthrowing and controlling the realm, bloodlust and a power hungry fight many villains fought to win but inevitably lost in the end. golden weapons and a boy, a devouring evil that could only ever consume; an evil that never rested, a dark lord. and as of more recently, a princess that tried to rise all hell.

  when the ninja defeated the overlord –the never resting evil– lloyd’s father, garmadon was freed from the poison and evil he was under because of the dark lord’s influence. once the man was a tyrant and now you hear he is a sensei of a small, tranquil monastery in a small village somewhere near the city. garmadon sought out lloyd and koko, and became the father and husband the evil forced him not to be.

  he was a tyrant and then became a father. 

  you turn again, laying on your back and stare up at the ceiling with zoned out eyes. the whole situation was peculiar, especially if now since garmadon is good; why was lloyd still so mistreated?

  no one necessarily needed to say anything about it; you’ve noticed the looks sour faces the nurses, doctors and patients gave him when he was escorting you out of the hospital. you noticed the vaguely visible tension on his face while he kept his guard up when you two were walking to his busted car and the way he looked as though he was expecting the worst.

  a defense mechanism, you could tell from the way his eyes were scanning his surroundings; expect the worst so it doesn’t surprise you.

  he softened up only when you two got home, back to your place. but despite the lighter atmosphere in the comfort of the car; you didn’t quite feel he was ready enough to answer your question about the ill treatment he was being faced with subtly. maybe that would also explain why he was so scared that something worse could’ve happened to you. 

  why’d everything need to be so difficult...?

  you frowned, looking out the window with now more focused eyes. it’s been a hell of a week– or several if you count the ones you've been in ninjago; and there’s something nagging you to go home where you’d be safe. but, that would throw everything you’ve worked for, the seat at the best university in all the realm– a ticket out of that house. you’d have to stick it out for a while; at the least for your course to finish before you do anything else.

  well, even if you leave, you’ll have lloyd’s number this time; a way to contact that greenie (the one thing you wanted so badly since eleven.)

  you close your eyes, trying to get some rest again despite half that week you spent in the hospital consisted of you sleeping when lloyd wasn’t (excusing himself to do something work related–not that you’d known him to be employed at the moment). the soft blankets, now warmed by the gentle sun seeping into your room, call you to fall asleep. and you comply wordlessly, willingly.

  until there was a knock on your door and a call of your name. 

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  ୧ ⎯⎯ TAGLIST ;; @spoopy-fish-writes // @spoops-inliyue ;; @decaffeinatedcloudkryptonite // @shaantiofher ;; @sunangelstears ;; @comicbookweirdo ;; @cl0udyw4ter ;; @chamille-trash ;; @candy884422 ;; @rossivette ;; @veiyx ;; @pix-y-styx ;; @a3th3rrr ;; @deluludhii // [pm/send in an ask to join]

˗ˏˋ ꒰ 💌 ꒱ kazukazuhas copr. 2023 darling┊ ˚➶ ｡˚ ☁️

[sepublic]

Given how many Ninjago villains were just lying in wait this whole time, it really makes you wonder what the heck they were thinking when previous villains revealed their endgame, if they had any plans for how to deal with it if the ninja couldn't, etc. What did Krux think when the mother of his Vermillion hordes showed up in his city; Did he think the Great Devourer sensed her children and was looking for them?

What was his thought process when her venom reawakened the Stone Warrior exhibit, when an entire Stone Army wreaked havoc on the city... And then returned to do so a second time, with most people being infected by Dark Matter? When he saw a giant demonic dragon on the horizon, did Krux panic and wonder if his Vermillion could handle the Overlord and his indestructible army, or was his plan to just lay low, wait for the return of Acronix and the other Time Blades, and then use Iron Doom to prevent all of this from happening? And when Cyrus Borg revamped all of Ninjago City with his technology, Krux must've been relieved when he undid those changes later on.

The Island of Darkness rising from the ocean, realistically, must've displaced an enormous amount of water, and thus had a huge impact on the global ecosystem. I think it would've been cool to have this mentioned by Kalmaar during Seabound; Maybe he points to this as an example of how the land dwellers continue to disrupt their world and steal from it, lifting the ocean floor to the arid surface and suffocating countless creatures?

We sort of have an idea for what Harumi was thinking when the Overlord attacked, twice; Her reaction to him is horror, and she initially refuses to work with the embodiment of evil. So she must've been scared again, and hoping Garmadon would stop the Overlord... Did she see and recognize Garmadon's body, mutated by the Overlord's possession?

When the Serpentine began to return, one tribe at a time, was Chen concerned about the Anacondrai coming back, and them getting in the way of his plan to take over Ninjago with his impostor Anacondrai? Was there relief when it became apparent that Pythor was the only survivor? What did he plan to do about the Great Devourer, or Dark Matter suddenly infecting entire swathes of the population?

I imagine the Overlord wasn't too concerned with Wojira's flooding of Ninjago City; If Kalmaar succeeded, he'd kill the ninja, the only ones who could stop him. We know Water and Wind come from Wojira, and Nya is susceptible to Vengestone; So would the Overlord's Vengestone army be enough to disable Wojira's powers? Could she be crystalized? Given that the Overlord is the embodiment of all darkness, evil, and hatred, did he not mind at all if some other villain got close to taking over the world, since it'd just make him stronger, and spreading this sort of despair was already his MO?

[vikenticomeshome]

Cyberchase- Why is The Hacker Such an Ass?

So, I was on TV Tropes awhile back. I was specifically on the Wild Mass Guessing (WMG) page for Cyberchase. The WMG page is a place for people to put their head-canons and wild ideas and explain why they have those ideas.

One head-canon that struck me as a bit odd was the idea that The Hacker is infected by some sort of virus that led to him becoming a villain. The idea is that he is not entirely in control of his actions, and that much of his current personality is just the virus talking. I'm sure people have already tapped into this idea for its fan-fiction potential.

At first, I sort of laughed off the idea and moved on. However, when I thought back over the various episodes of the show, I realized that the show did poke at the idea a few times, whether it was intentional or not.

I want to talk about two cases where the show poked at the idea. However, I want to make a few things clear first. First, I don't think this theory will ever be confirmed in the show. The show-runners love him just the way is. They love how pompous and preening he is.

They love him endangering our child protagonists.

They love setting him up for the Cybersquad to foil his plans in the end.

They love embarrassing him and poking holes in his image.

While the original story of The Hacker was that he was just born evil per "How It all Started"...

... they have since expanded his backstory to include a period of faithful service to Motherboard...

...followed by a turn to villainy later on, perhaps when he realized what the Transformatron could do.

Even when he went through his inevitable villain decay due to being defeated by children so many times, they fit it into the universe. The Hacker's current arc is that no one is Cyberspace is scared of him anymore, so he's trying to restore his image.

So, no, I don't think we're going to have the revelation that The Hacker is really a good person who is forced to be evil via a sentient virus, a magic spell, or hard drive damage.

If they were to go that route, they would have a problem. They would probably have to permanently reform The Hacker. And if he permanently cures Motherboard's virus, then the show ends.

Even if they decided to reform him, but left him unable to cure Motherboard's cirus, they would lose their OG villain. Yes, Ledge and Zusk exist, but they barely exist at this point, especially Ledge, who Motherboard probably deleted off-screen after what he did to the kids and Digit vanished a few seasons ago. They can't fill his shoes. Even Wicked, who's been the main villain in a few episodes, probably wouldn't be able to come up with a new, interesting, magic spell for every episode going forward.

And if they tried to confirm this theory without reforming Hacker, then the whole dynamic of the show changes. The kids wouldn't be cyber-chasing after a power-hungry cyborg who wants to control Cyberspace. They would be trying to heal a brain-damaged cyborg who once served and protected Motherboard.

Now, let's get to the two times where I think the show poked at the idea that The Hacker became a villain against his will and need to be healed.

The first case was in Season 3 Episode 6 "The Grapes of Plath". The main plot here is that the Crab Prince was dared to go into the forbidden abyss and came out with a glitch.

He has been transformed into a compulsive liar. This would apparently up-end society in Aquari-yum worse than when Icky, the last Cyberslug, dies, and he can no longer feed on the energy that threatens to boil over the site.

So, now, the kids need to go to the Fountain of Truth and retrieve the Grapes of Plath, which will cure him.

Meanwhile, the Hacker has a problem. His chin is all floppy. It just isn't as firm and rigid as it was when he was a younger borg, and now he is self-conscious about it.

He accidentally intercepts a transmission from Motherboard. While it's a bit garbled, he hears her mention a "fountain of *unintelligible* uth". Of course, we know that it is the Fountain of Truth, but he believes it to be the Fountain of Youth. He wants to use the grapes to restore his chin.

Now, we don't know much about the Grapes of Plath. We know that they come from the Fountain of Truth, and we know that, when the Crab Prince was dipped head to toe in them, they removed the glitch that turned him into a compulsive liar.

Were these grapes specifically engineered to fix glitches that involve compulsive lying? That's a very niche use case. I can't imagine Plath gets many visitors. We don't see any evidence that they force the subject to always tell the truth like the spell from the Jim Carrey movie "Liar Liar". Are these Grapes all about restoring someone to their true self by removing a glitch? I like that explanation best.

Still, despite the kid's warnings that these grapes are from the Fountain of Truth, not the Fountain of Youth, The Hacker jumps in and covers himself from head to toe.

And he comes out of the juice a completely different Borg.

The Hacker: Happy Birthday, Princey. Say hello to your new best friend, the meanest guy in Cyberspace. When it's my birthday I want a cute little pony, no, a lollipop.

He is promptly removed. At this point, he seemingly goes back to normal, and is no longer covered in grapes.

Hacker: Follow me, ya duncebuckets!

Hold up, what the fuck just happened? We go back to the status quo almost immediately, as this is a status quo show, but the Grapes of Plath affected The Hacker. Why would they do that? This isn't like The Hacker hitting his head in Season 2 Episode 10 "Raising the Bar", and then, afterwards, he thought that Buzz was the boss, and that he was the henchman. This is more like mixing a cure for magnetite poisoning, and then discovering that the cure didn't fully work because the damage was more severe than expected.

No one ever said the Grapes of Plath make someone friendlier. No one ever said they make you want things like lollipops and ponies. We know for sure that they were able to cure the glitch that made the Crab Prince a compulsive liar. We know for sure that they have some association with truth, as they come from the Fountain of Truth. We know that The Hacker started wishing the Crab Prince Happy Birthday and asking for lollipops and ponies after his exposure. We can theorize that their ability to heal someone from a glitch could come from an innate ability to help restore someone to their true self.

We know very little about what The Hacker's personality was like before he turned to villainy. Even his expanded backstory is mostly just the villainy he did before the Cybersquad was recruited.

his plans for the Transformation (and Coop's attempt to stop him)

his poisoning of Coop (and what that did to Slider)

his theft of the Encryptor Chip (and his banishment)

his tricking of the Flying Parallinis into rescuing him from Mount Way-Up-There (and the impact that mistake had on them)

his attack on Valussa (and Digit's defection)

his action of infecting Motherboard with a virus (and the start of the series)

Maybe The Hacker enjoyed ponies and lollipops back in the day. Maybe we saw the real Hacker for a few seconds there before the virus/spell/brain damage overwhelmed the healing power of the Grapes of Plath. I wonder.

Let's move on to the second time the show implied something was wrong. However, in order to talk about that, I have to lay out two assumptions.

First, let's assume that Motherboard has a strong moral framework that leads her to always do the right thing, in spite of any personal biases. She does not seek easy ways out which would compromise her moral framework. This is what the show has been telling us for years.

I think the best example of this is probably one of the very best episodes of the show, Season 2 Episode 4 "True Colors". The Hacker calls an election for potentate and sets himself up to run against Motherboard, which is perfectly legal under the Cyber-constitution. Whether Motherboard truly believed The Hacker had reformed or not is unclear. However, it doesn't really matter. If he had won the election, she would have stepped down and followed the will of the people.

We learn that, if The Hacker wins, he will revise the Cyber-constitution to bring an end to the elections and make his rule permanent. The way he says it suggests that, as potentate, he would be able to revise the Cyber-constitution all by himself without any checks or balances.

Now, there's a whole can of worms here about a singular ruler being able to rewrite all of the laws unchecked, but I'm leaving that closed for now. However, this does mean that Motherboard could have rewritten the Cyber-constitution herself to shut down the Hacker's election plan right there. She didn't do it.

Second, let's assume that Motherboard was fully on board with the plan that Digit and the kids were executing during the episode that I am about to talk about. There are some things in this episode that suggest that the kids may have been running wild here, and that Motherboard was unaware of what was happening right until close to the end. I do plan to talk about that on another post. For now, we assume that Motherboard was on board the whole way.

Let's review:

Motherboard has a strong moral framework that leads her to always do the right thing, in spite of any personal biases. She does not seek easy ways out which would compromise her moral framework.

Motherboard was fully on board with the plan that Digit and the kids were executing during the episode that I am about to talk about.

Do you have all of that? Good. Let's talk about Season 5 Episode 8 "Inside Hacker".

So, Digit gives us the premise up front.

Digit: Reprogramming Hacker so he changes back into his good old self. Our best plan yet!

So, I think we all see the ethical implications of attempting to rewrite someone's personality against their will. Of course, that's with our world's understanding of the importance of "the self" and free will.

But hey, maybe Cyberspace has a different idea of the "self" that we would consider dystopian. Maybe borgs reprogram each other all the time without consent. Maybe the "self" is fluid here. What else does the show have to say about the concept of reprogramming someone? Wasn't there an episode where Digit was considering allowing himself to be reprogrammed to be less clumsy? Yeah, it was Season 6 Episode 1 "Digit's B-Day Surprise".

Uh oh. There are consent forms for reprogramming someone, and I don't remember The Hacker signing anything. Does anyone remember who was trying to get Digit to provide consent to be reprogrammed in this episode?

Wait, so this is a line that even The Hacker won't cross? Well, the Cybersquad's plan just sounds wicked in a bad way.

That has a double-meaning, as Wicked has repeatedly engaged in reprogramming borgs against their will. We saw this in Season 2 Episode 3 "Harriet the Hippo and the Mean Green" and Season 7 Episode 7 "Spellbound". I'm not even going to touch what happened with "Designing Mr. Perfect".

So, yeah, reprogramming someone against their will is definitely a villainous act in Cyberspace. The kids may be naive on this point, but Motherboard isn't. Even the virus doesn't eliminate her moral code, as we've seen in the other episodes. So, how we do we resolve this? Well, sometimes kids cartoons make a mess of the discussion of free will. They will claim that a "good" character being brainwashed by the "bad guys" and turned "evil" is absolutely horrible, which is an excellent point to make.

However, that same show will then claim that an "evil" character being brainwashed by the "good guys" and turned "good" is absolutely fine. As long as the character isn't evil anymore, the show calls it a win. The most famous example of this is probably the "Care Bear Stare" from the Care Bears cartoons. That was just a brainwashing attack they used on their enemies.

Cyberchase has pretty simple morality. Motherboard is the ultimate good, while The Hacker is the ultimate evil. However, we are at least a little bit above The Care Bears here. The kids are required to abide by the laws of the different Cybersites that they take action in. They aren't given easy outs like shooting The Hacker until he stops being a villain. That sounds more like a gritty reboot of Cyberchase.

So, let's add one more assumption to the board for "Inside Hacker":

Motherboard has a strong moral framework that leads her to always do the right thing, in spite of any personal biases. She does not seek easy ways out which would compromise her moral framework.

Motherboard was fully on board with the plan that Digit and the kids were executing during the episode that I am about to talk about.

Cyberchase is not The Care Bears.

So, how do we resolve the issue? Well, suppose that The Hacker started out as a good guy, who worked as a technician for Motherboard. He wanted to help make Cyberspace a great place, and all he wanted in return was to go home to his pony and lollipop at the end of the day. But then, one way or another, his personality was altered against his will, and he became obsessed with taking over Cyberspace. He became the villain he is today.

Then, perhaps the action of reprogramming him back to his original self without consent can be justified. After all, the original Hacker is not able to provide his consent. In that case, maybe it falls to Motherboard and Dr. Marbles to become his medical proxy.

Again, I don't think we'll ever see the show confirm this theory. It would just make too much of a mess if we haven't been with the real Hacker for the past 20 years. I do wonder if the implications of these two scenes were put in by the writers intentionally though.

There are other ways to look at this, of course, so let's pull our combined board here.

The Hacker acted strangely after being covered in the Grapes of Plath from the Fountain or Truth. These grapes are known to have repaired the glitch that turned the Crab Prince into a compulsive liar. The Hacker talked about celebrating the Crab Prince's birthday and wanting a pony and a lollipop for his birthday. He was back to normal shortly afterward.

The kids and Digit went forward with a plan to forcibly reprogram The Hacker against his will to turn him from a villain back into his original good self.

2a. We know that reprogramming someone against their will is a villainous act in Cyberspace. Wicked has done it numerous times. When The Hacker wanted to reprogram Digit, he would not proceed without getting his signature on the consent forms, which implies that reprogramming Digit without his consent is a line that The Hacker won't cross.

2b. We assumed that Motherboard has a strong moral framework that leads her to always do the right thing, in spite of any personal biases.

2c. We assumed that Motherboard knew what the kids were up to throughout the episode, rather than just finding out at the very end.

On #1: The incident with the Grapes of Plath could have been a fluke. We still know next to nothing about how the grapes work. It could be like magnetite, which affects all borgs differently. On #2b: Perhaps Motherboard slipped up here with regards to her moral code. Perhaps, in a moment of anger over her own suffering with the virus, she put the kids on their mission to end the threat of The Hacker via forced reprogramming. If so, this is a pretty big black mark on her record.

On #2c: Some of the dialogue in "Inside Hacker" suggests that the kids and Digit came up with the plan. We don't actually see Motherboard's face until the very end. Perhaps she didn't realize what was really going on until that point. And at that point, the important thing was rescuing Matt, not scolding the children.

[insaneforme]

do you have any book recommendations? 🤍

♡ My Book Recommendations:

- Pale Fire [Vladimir Nabokov— amazing author, also very critical of Dostoevsky… how unfortunate as they are both my favourites]

- Anti-Oedipus [Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze]

- Powers of Horror [Julia Kristeva]

- Beyond Good and Evil [Friedrich Nietzsche]

- A Spy in the House of Love [Anaïs Nin— I enjoy all of her works, I am very fond of her]

- Kafka on the Shore [Haruki Murakami— despite being perverted in nature, I am fond of his works.]

- Notes of Underground & White Nights [Dostoevsky— also, honourable mention: Crime & Punishment… classic for a reason. Vladimir Nabokov hated this book though which makes my heart sad]

- A Little Life [I hate this book. Would not recommend if you are in a vulnerable place in life]

- The Yellow Wallpaper [Charlotte Perkins Stetson— very short read. Enjoyed]

- Any poetry by Jorge Luis Borges

- The Handmaids Tale [Margaret Atwood— a classic]

- East of Eden [John Steinbeck. More of a philosophical book. a compelling and thought provoking read if you want to get into Steinbeck (try of mice and men)

If you enjoy philosophy then maybe you’ll enjoy Albert Camus. I was never very fond of his works. I received an annotated version of The Myth of Sisyphus as a present once. Did not enjoy the book… I will reread it, however. I want to see if he is more palatable for my taste now that I’ve grown]

- The Kites [Romain Gary. A lovely spring time read before summer starts]

- The Lost Estate [Alain-Fournier. If you enjoy feeling the nostalgia for childhood then I would give this a read]

- letters to Milena (Franz Kafka)

- War and Peace. Just read it. Get it out of the way. Read every single classic that there is in the world just so you can say that you’ve read it.

- Beware of Pity [Stefan Zweig. Talks about how destructive pity can be. Interesting]

- Villette [Charlotte Brontë]

- Invisible Man [Ralph Ellison]

Those are just a few I thought of… I could really go on forever and talk about these books… for ever. I tried my best to steer away from talking about many common classics and include a few books that although aren’t as common, are definitely worth the read. I hope you enjoy

[beardedmrbean]

I read a book of a Khmer Rouge survivor in senior yeah, he had to learn his little brother died starving wondering where he was. And he was forced to killed a injured kid to put them out of their misery.

It fucking disgusting that people still believe communism will solve everything. Not to mention these modern commies are the same ones that will slurp up articles saying I need classes on how not to rape because of my genitalia at 13 yet says I’m oppressed because of my skintone.

Why should I want communism when commies have shown time and time again that they will treat people they hate the same way Nazis treated the Jews?

Difference between the two falls into the theory vs practice, there's really no way you can paint the nazi ideology to make it look anything other than hateful so both in theory and in practice it's evil.

Socialism/communism doesn't require the extermination of anything but the individual. I've used "The Borg" from Star Trek as a example of a model socialist system. Everyone plays their part for the advancement of the collective no individuality no actions that aren't for the benefit or maintenance of the collective.

If you peacefully join and assimilate then there's no need for a war, if you don't want to join that's when the death and destruction begins.

Easy example would be the Antisemitism of karl marx that's baked into everything that has branched off of his philosophy.

'on the Jewish question' the answer is, there's a place for Jewish people in communism, but there's no place for being Jewish in it, as humans they're welcome but they have to stop being Jewish, and assimilate into the machine that is the state.

So what with the 'we don't actually need to murder millions of people to make it work' bit making it sound like a good way to get everyone taken care of and with the added punch of slogans like "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" really makes it sound utopian, which if you could manage it it might be.

But the difference between human beings and the borg, other than one being fictional, (you can decided which is which) is the cyborgs don't retain the sentience needed to do things like create art, appreciate beautiful things, fall in love, or any of the negative issues like greed, racism, intolerance of any sort, belief of a higher power outside of the collective.

So the TL:DR; here is that the only way humans could get socialism to work on a large scale would involve making them less human.

But that doesn't get brought up when people are talking up socialism, either because the thought never occurred to them or because they're the ones that are looking to be in charge of the killing.

Guy that got called a poser on a twitter thread because he said he wanted to be a farmer or do manual labor instead of designing uniforms for the new secret police or something like that should be about as much of a tell about what the folks that are pushing for this are like.

I'm all for social programs, I just don't trust the government to be in charge of them, every single one around the world has a bad record on human rights after all,

[the-ninja-legacy-whip]

If it's not too much of a spoiler but which em are going to end up more on the antagonistic side and which will end up taking more of an ally stance?

Some characters are definitely going to have a similar role like in season 4 I imagine but considering you will give more depth to a lot of them (like for example tox who completely drowned out in the show), which roles will slightly change/more focused on?

What I'm personally guessing right now is that chamille and ash are more on the antagonistic side, skylor stays the way she was in the show while karlof might be more of an ally (since he is kai's teacher in school) as well as tox. And with the rest I absolutely don't know

-nerd anon

With Skylor, she does lean a bit more into her ~evil upbringing~ at first cuz I think there's a lot of potential there that can be explored, along with how she grows to adjust to life beyond the Archipelago, but otherwise yes she's basically just like the show.

Chamille of course is antagonistic (especially towards Lloyd for hopefully will-be-if-not-already obvious reasons) as that's been her schtick for a while (though we don't really get to see much out of it), but she definitely ain't using that power of hers for anything good.

Karlof and Tox stay good through and through, although Tox may be tempted otherwise a little ways down the line, even if only temporarily. Karlof, however, stays a good bean ;w;)/

Paleman's definitely getting fleshed out more! As mentioned on a previous ask he actually gets to have a fight in the tournament (primarily due to the inclusion of Jesse), on top of his complicated background and potential connections with Sunni :3

Griffin's already got some of the biggest spotlight out of all the "Side EMs", and I'm aiming to make him more of a (eventually friendly) rival character than a straight up antagonist. Just someone to keep the gang on their toes, mostly.

Ash isn't outright evil, but due to me rebranding him as an assassin, he definitely doesn't have the best morals all the time. Still kind of fidgeting with his character due to the fact he doesn't ever say a word (maybe I'll make him selectively mute, there's an idea) but for a wispy guy he's rather sharp around the edges *ba dum tiss*

Jacob won't have a grand role or anything, but he does get a lot of interaction with the likes of Jay and Jesse that I'm looking forward to. And in later seasons when the EMs are called upon to gather, I do plan to have him, y'know, not be missing, because unlike Chamille he does't have an excuse. C'mon man, you're part of this crazy crew too!!! (And no, I refuse to believe he was eaten by Chen's pet snake, hmph)

Gravis...I'm still workshopping. I do somewhat picture him as a neutral party when it comes to conflicts, and probably mediates when necessary, but right now I don't have him doing anything outside of the box. Yet. I'm sure once I dive more into his character I'll come up with something, haha

Shade comes off as antagonistic, but he's just an anti-social extravert hgfkjhjgfdsgfd. And this started as a crack idea (of course) buuut I thought it'd be hilarious if Sunni and/or Miranda wind up making him break his hardass facade askljhghfhgfd

Neuro generally is someone that has good intentions, but he will play both sides if he thinks it'll benefit him in the long run. Which is very easy to do when you're a mind reader. Most of the time, however, he is actually quite eager to help, and I kind of think it would be fun to have him work under/for/in relation to Borg in the future like Julien used to. But, we'll see, I'm not totally committed to the idea (I just want an excuse to see him more)

Bolobo is just out here doing his own thing to his own vibe and thriving with it skklslkslkfg. He's got some good insightful moments coming his way though~

Jesse absolutely doesn't go full antagonist whatsoever but he does have a lil' rebellious phase at one point snksnksnk

But also every EM gets a chance to kind of talk about themselves and their pasts before or after being eliminated from the tournament (preferably before but I'm going to be realistic for now), and I'm really excited to expand on the EMs dynamics with the main ninja and each other! <3

[girldong]

Howdy! Im working on a paper about systems of morality in TTRPGs. Think like DnDs alignment grid or FIST and the mercenaries. Like different explicit or implied ethical systems. Anyway, im looking for games to read. Please rec some games. Thank you stay frosty

AHHHH ty ok ok

as for systems:

LANCER, ICON, Heaven's on Fire, FIST, Blades in the Dark, Beam Saber, Armor Astir, Mork Borg/Cy_Borg, Mothership (lot of things im forgetting here also)

lots of words under the cut:

Blades in the Dark is a great one to look at for a game that more or less as its baseline conceit has players play """bad""" people who will be breaking the law

i find how it does this more interesting than the usual cyberpunk/shadowrun type stuff, as it is less of a power/heist fantasy like those and more actually interested in operating as a criminal in an environment that will react accordingly to how you conduct yourself (rival gangs, killing random people or wanton destruction generates a lot of heat, etc) as well as rewarding playing to character tropes

I also don't think they're very good games, but looking at the old 90s editions of Vampire the Masquerade is worthwhile on this subject, because they're obsessed with ideas of counterculture and playing "evil" characters in a way that is very emblematic of the shitty edgy stuff in the late 90s/early 00s tabletop scene

in general most modern stuff has actually ditched alignment and gone for something i find far more interesting- rewarding characters roleplaying in a certain way based on their class/archetype

and of course D&D and all the Gygax-isms are very colonial in nature because they're fundamentally not interested in the sort of reactivity that I've mentioned above, there's no GM tools for that. They're written like "go into the EVIL RACE'S spooky dungeon, kill them, and take their treasure." Baldur's Gate 3 can get away with being D&D (well. mostly) because it's a curated prewritten experience and was written with that "reactivity".

D&D offers no tools in its vanilla text for the GM to make the players feel in a real world with depth and consequences, and even goes as far as to keep the fucked up black and white morality of "evil" races and every other prickly trope. Of course WOTC knows this and tries to backpedal on it, but still just like. Keeps the black and white morality of the old editions.

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Jean-Luc Picard

By Ames

Since you all enjoyed our spotlighting of all the characters from The Original Series, we’re going to continue onward by spotlighting all our mains from Star Trek: The Next Generation as well! Of course, we were going to do it anyway because we’re having a blast going officer by officer and reminiscing on their high and low points, but I wanted you to feel special.

And what better way to start things off than with one of the fandom’s favorite and most ethical characters, and the one who sparked his own [deeply flawed] spinoff series, Captain Jean-Luc Picard! So join us on this week’s A Star to Steer Her By as we put on our captain’s bomber jacket, whip out our Ressikan flutes, and drape our Mintakan tapestries over the backs of chairs. Read on below for when Picard was at his best, and subsequently at his worst, and listen to the banter over on this week’s podcast episode (jump to 1:08:49 if you're not here for Enterprise chat). Make it so!

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Not now, Doctor. Please. I already foresee talking about “The Naked Now” quite a lot over the next couple of weeks because everyone’s character ends up exaggerated by the polywater syndrome. And Picard is no exception. We do admit that it is good of him to fight his intoxication and also Bev’s advances, and it also gives us that little horny chuckle and skip that are just so endearing.

Prove to the court that I am sentient Picard becomes known throughout the series for his excellent ethical and philosophical speeches, and the first really big one comes in “The Measure of a Man” and it’s a doozy. It’s no small feat determining sentience (really, sapience) of a being, and Picard standing up to Bruce Maddox to fight for Data’s rights is something to take pride in and aspire to.

The time cops would be proud Picard’s relationship with Guinan is intriguing throughout all of TNG, and his trust in her abilities is enough for him to believe that it is best to send the Enterprise-C back to their rightful place in history in “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” As his alternate-timeline ship is crashing down around him and his crew is dying all over the bridge, he heroically gives the C their best shot.

Sarek <3 Spock In our Top 5 TNG Episodes list, “Sarek” ended up being the only episode that made all four of your hosts’ lists. And for good reason! Picard compassionately helps Sarek through a bout of Bendii syndrome by mindmelding with him so he can get back to his ambassadorial work, and we end up with some of the best Patrick Stewart acting in the whole show for it!

Bedtime for Borgo Picard has a rough time throughout all of “The Best of Both Worlds,” spending most of the two-parter as Locutus, as you’ll see in just a moment. But at the end of Part II, he’s able to fight through the Borg programming just enough to give Data the one-word cue “Sleep,” which turns out to be the undoing of the Borg in that Battle of Wolf-359.

Mev yap! I’m always a big fan of watching Picard speaking Klingon in their ceremonies. It shows how seriously he takes their customs. And in “Reunion,” when he breaks out the ja’chuq while arbitrating the Rite of Succession and also looking into K’mpec’s murder, it’s so ballsy that you’ve got to respect the guy. Or, at least anyone who isn’t as dishonorable as Duras has got to respect the guy.

With the first link, the chain is forged Yet another in a long line of great Picard speeches comes in “The Drumhead.” Admiral Satie gets more and more power hungry to convict people throughout her Red Scare hearings, even through unscrupulous means. Picard rightly puts her in her place by throwing the just words of her own father in her face. No wonder she’s on Jake’s Evil Admirals listicle.

Sokath, his eyes uncovered! Picard befriending Captain Dathon in “Darmok” is so Picardy that I’m swapping it in for that great line from “Peak Performance” I mentioned on the podcast (which is still great, but the screengrab was more boring). And I’m just so impressed with Picard’s patience in learning the seemingly nonsensical Tamarian language and his willingness to trust another being who just wants to communicate with him.

Resistance is not futile While it could be debated that this moment be prime fodder for Picard’s Worst Moments list for not getting rid of the Borg when he had the chance in “I, Borg,” we’ve got to admit it’s such a good moment for Picard to connect with Hugh and save his life. After having been forced into the role of Locutus, Picard has got to feel some small triumph that he didn’t commit genocide this day.

There! Are! Four! Lights!  More absolutely stellar Patrick Stewart acting comes in “Chain of Command, Part II.” Say what you will about Part I (Picard had no reason to be on this mission, there, I said it), watching Picard retain his humanity and resolution while being tortured by Gul Madred is riveting stuff. And no matter how many times I see it, I get goosebumps at his “four lights” defiance every time.

Yippee-ki-yay Here’s another kinda late addition to this list but how can one not include all the sabotaging of the ship he does in “Starship Mine”? It’s clear that Picard knows his ship like the back of his hand (the one that wasn’t briefly a Borg hand, more likely) when you watch him outsmart a bunch of terrorists as he John McClanes all over the Enterprise-D.

How many people does it take, Admiral, before it becomes wrong? Insurrection may not be anyone’s favorite of the Star Trek movies (here’s ours, for reference!), but Picard’s ethical debate feels so immensely right. Between standing up to Dougherty (another evil admiral!), to fighting for the rights of the Ba’ku, to his great line to Gallatin, “I’m not pleading for my life; I’m pleading for yours,” this is the most Picard has ever Picarded. Period.

—

Worst moments

Shut up, Wesley While we were tempted to also include this moment in our Best Moments list, it’s true that no matter how obnoxious Wesley is being (and he so often is; just wait until our Wesley spotlight), it’s never right to tell him to shut up. Even less so when he is literally the only member of the crew who is actually giving you pertinent information to save the day, as he was in “Datalore.”

Breaking the cycle Since we first watched it, we’ve been simply perplexed by “Time Squared.” There’s a reason it made so many of our Worst Time Travel Episode lists. Picard, at an entire loss for ideas, decides to kill the other him who’s been bonking around to see if that stops the time loops, and then leaves the corpse there for Pulaski to find without telling anyone which him it is! WTF?

I don't know if I want to be Eve I’ve also got to give Picard some guff for making the Bringloidi breeding stock for the Mariposans in “Up the Long Ladder.” Brenna even chastises Picard in the final scene for deciding this with only the male leaders of each society without consulting the women, who will have to basically become baby incubators, and even more annoyingly, she ends up being into it!

Resistance IS futile! While we can’t exactly blame Picard himself for being turned into Locutus in “The Best of Both Worlds,” resulting in huge losses for the Federation, we do have to admit it’s one of his lowest points as a human being. There’s a reason why Picard actually needs to take a mental health vacation in “Family,” something we tended to never see in Star Trek of that era.

Another orphan for the Rozhenkos You could tell by the look on Picard’s face after he accidentally killed Junior’s mother in “Galaxy’s Child” that he knows he screwed up. Couldn’t they have just left her alone in space instead of provoking her to attack them and then finding it necessary to shoot her dead? And now poor Junior has to be raised by his asshole aunts and uncles, thank you very much.

Now now now now! I mean, we were bound to dislike “Rascals” regardless because of its terrible child actors and obnoxious plot, but when you think about it, Picard was also entirely out of character. And it’s not just because he was supposed to be prepubescent: it was because he suddenly couldn’t lead his crew, and being smaller and whinier is no excuse for ignoring all his past experiences!

Mystery solved: Picard did it! If we picked on Kirk back in one of our earlier character spotlights for never checking in on Khan when he marooned him on Ceti Alpha V, then you’re damn right we’re going to pick on Picard for not checking in on Moriarty between “Elementary, Dear Data” and “Ship in a Bottle.” In that time, the holographic mastermind got rightly impatient and took matters into his own hands.

Play dom-jot, human “Tapestry” portrays how brash and short-sighted and tail-chasing Picard was in his years at Starfleet Academy, and how his willingness to get into scrapes got him into a fight with Nausicaans that really should have killed him if it weren’t for future technology. Thank the Continuum for JL’s artificial heart that allowed him to become the man we saw him become.

So it was gik'tal after all While we get that Sito Jaxa had a lot to atone for after the incident in “The First Duty,” we are still uncomfortable with how much Jean-Luc guilted her into going on the very dangerous mission that got her killed in “Lower Decks.” Picard definitely abused his power over her in this instance because he knew how badly she wanted to save face and he exploited it.

Kill the Dorvan V native, save the man Indeed, one of the worst decisions we see Picard make is when he just acts on Necheyev’s orders (hey, another of Jake’s Evil Admirals!) like a little sheep and coordinates moving the inhabitants of Dorvan V in “Journey’s End.” It’s shameful to watch Picard go the route of the Trail of Tears, and then only come around when he’s shown who his ancestor was. 

I think it’s time to try some unsafe velocities We talk a lot about how the Prime Directive isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but that’s still no excuse for all the dunebuggying antics Picard performed in Nemesis. Especially in front of all the natives of the planet (or what we assumed were natives). What a pathetic scene in a pathetic movie. It’s so clear they just wanted to race around in an ATV for a little excitement, but it was absolutely stupid and out of character.

The triumph of the echo over the voice Fittingly, we have even more Nemesis moments to lament since it was such a detestable movie. All movie long, I don’t understand why Picard is so conflicted about the clone situation, as if Shinzon is literally Picard himself and it would reflect poorly on him somehow. That’s not how clones work, dude! There’s no saving this asshole. And unrelatedly, but here we are: stop ordering Worf to go naked to the wedding on Betazed; that’s just gross!!!

—

Well, our Earl Grey tea has gotten lukewarm, and that means we’ve got to wrap things up. Make sure you join us next week for more character spotlights, this one of the bearded variety, and also keep following along with our watchthrough of Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast. You can also discuss diplomatic relations with us on Facebook and Twitter, and let Worf keep his clothes on if he wants!

[good-wine-and-cheese]

Top 5 robots uwu

Top 5 robots!!!!!

Data!!! Nothing will ever hit as hard as Data's constant desire to be more human and the way he needles questions of ethics and humanity. Data-centered episodes are some of Star Trek's finest.

2. Pluto!! But in particular the PLUTO variation. His story is so much. The grief and hatred that surrounds him turned him into something terrifying - and yet there's still a person in there who loves and cares.

3. North No.2 has the same flavour of guy as Data; he just wants to learn how to play the piano and live out his slice of life story with Duncan :( This is a lot of peoples' most memorable arc and it's for a good reason.

4. Lore! Data's older brother with problems. He just wanted his dad to fix him man. I love juxtaposing his resentment toward humans against Data's admiration, but also I just love whenever Brent Spiner gets to show his range

5. Uran! She's a menace. I love a little girl who does not give a shit. She's still kind, she's just also an uncontrollable force and I love that for her.

Adding a couple honourable mentions...

Shadow from AB03! Usually when a character of his type is introduced, they're meant to be the "evil version" of the character that serves to start that character's redemptive arc (ie; looking into the Evil they're capable of turns them around etc) but that's not what Shadow is. Arguably he's the opposite - representing what Tenma could be like if he wasn't so.........stuck. And I like it! I like that kind of character a lot.

The Borg Queen I'm on the fence about since the Borg are explicitly not robots however I feel like as the "representative" of the collective she counts a little. And she rules so whatever

[quantum27]

how are you dying as a background/one off character in star trek?

[lostyesterday]

I’m re-watching Voyager with a friend (who’s seeing it for the first time) and I mentioned to them that the Kazon are only part of the show in the first couple seasons, which made them wonder what happens to Seska after that. They suggested that maybe she follows Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant and joins whoever the next major antagonist is along the way. I love this idea so much. Every season, Seska just pops up with her new evil pals to conduct more nefarious schemes. Seska joining the Hirogen. Seska allying with the Borg somehow. Amazing.

[isagrimorie]

I finally got to watch the Balance of Terror, it was one of the episodes in TOS mentioned that was very much a submarine fight and you know what?

THEY WERE RIGHT.

It worked for TOS that it feels like their systems were advanced but not so advanced for sensors to work at full power and the camera work helped with the claustrophobia.

This is, in some way, why SNW's version of this episode wasn't as tense because SNW's Enterprise is so spit-shining new. The wide corridors, and the shininess all worked against the kind of tension BoT was so good at.

SNW's episode worked for its purpose for Pike to accept his fate.

I also really love seeing the point of view of the Romulans. How they were also struggling with every use of the Cloak, it was really a balance between using their remaining power to fuel their way home, power the cloak, or their weapons.

The moment when they all had to be silent so they don't reveal their position was great. This is the kind of frontier fight I hoped for Voyager way back then-- or maybe have Voyager stuck a bit more in Borg space as they try to fly their way out of Borg space.

Year of Hell did push that and that was great! But also I gotta give it to the Voyager production, they really committed to making Voyager look broken down with its falling bulkheads and sparking lights, and destroyed railings, the way Voyager looked falling apart.

In fact, according to the Delta Flyers podcast the set was so destroyed they had to hold off filming for the next episodes because production did too good a job-destroying the set for Year of Hell.

(I really think Voyager writers were hoping Voyager would reflect the events of YoH but their boss nixed the idea).

I also bought the cost it took for Kirk and his decisions, and honestly this Kirk and Pine's Beyond!Kirk is so close together. I can see those things in Pine's Kirk.

What a good episode. A++ Submarine style fighting.

I don't know if modern Trek can ever replicate Balance of Terror, particularly the claustrophobia that everyone could feel. I also miss having the point of view of the enemy, who wasn't evil or mustache-twirling but as dedicated a Captain and crew as the Enterprise.

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 51: Villains team up (part 1)

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon! For today’s episode, I’d like to focus on the bad guys.

…no, not those ones. This is an ArchieSonic blog series, not IDWSonic.

Episode 51: Villains team up 

I mean hey, all the best cartoons have extremely memorable episodes where the villains join forces. Darkwing Duck had “Just Us Justice Ducks.” DuckTales 2017 had “Glomtales.” Batman 1966 had Batman: The Movie (and if you want to tell me that the 60’s Batman series wasn’t a cartoon, I will strongly disagree with you on that. xD). So did ArchieSonic have any memorable villain team-ups? Actually yes, quite a few. Let’s start with the earliest example, shall we?

First up is one I’ve talked about before: Evil Sonic and Robo-Robotnik, who actually worked together a couple of times.

The first instance was in Sonic #19, when Robo-Robotnik had conquered his own world and was out to destroy all other Sonics on all other worlds. Sonic rallied his counterparts from across the multiverse to face this threat, and in response Robo-Robotnik hired Evil Sonic to do his dirty work for him.

Evil Sonic was sent to steal a relic called the Giant Hand, which Robo-Robotnik used to form the enormous Giant Borg.

After the Giant Borg was destroyed by the legion of Sonics, each hedgehog took a piece of it with them back to their own dimensions to ensure that it could never be reassembled. Except that’s exactly what happened anyway a few years later in the Crossover Chaos super special. Robo-Robotnik, preparing to come out of the shadows and begin his conquest of Mobius Prime, once again came to Evil Sonic and asked him go dimension-hopping to gather all the pieces of the Giant Borg. Evil Sonic happily went along with this plan, except he accidentally took the pieces to the Robotnik of the Sonic Underground universe instead of Robo-Robotnik.

Robo-Robotnik decided to just cut his losses and move forward with his other invasion plans, and Sonic Prime had to team up with the Underground trio to stop the Giant Borg once again.

Not long after Prime Robotnik’s defeat (seriously, only three issues later in Sonic #53), we got another villain team up when the wizard Ixis Naugus was introduced.

Having just escaped from the Zone of Silence with the former royal warlord Kodos and a spider ninja called Uma Arachnis, Naugus was demanding his right to the throne because King Acorn had sworn fealty to him when they were trapped in the Zone of Silence together. Sonic managed to outsmart the wizard though and Naugus fled, leaving Kodos and Arachnis paralysed as crystal statues. 

To be honest I’m not sure if this one counts as a villain team up, as Naugus and Arachnis were only introduced in this issue (although Naugus did get a name drop in an earlier issue) and Kodos had only been seen as part of King Acorn’s confused memories. So they weren’t exactly fully established villains at this point in the story, plus Kodos and Arachnis were mostly just acting as Naugus’ mooks. But I figured this one was worth mentioning as they both become more relevant later on.

Another very memorable team up from the 90s (and another one I’ve mentioned before) was when Enerjak and the Dark Legion were brought together for the first time in Knuckles #7. Enerjak was actually Dimitri, Knuckles’ great-uncle many generations removed, who centuries ago had tried to drain the Floating Island’s Chaos Emeralds of their powers to gently lower it back to the planet’s surface. However his Chaos Syphon had overloaded and filled him with the power of 11 Chaos Emeralds, immediately driving him mad with power and driving him to take over the world. He was defeated and buried inside a mountain for centuries until he broke out in the Knuckles mini-series and once again tried to take over the world. He was once again defeated and exiled to space - which seems extremely unlikely considering the power he wielded, but whatever. That brings us to the Dark Vengeance story arc, where Dimitri was mysteriously sent back to the Floating Island, appearing right in the middle of a Dark Legion meeting.

The Dark Legion had been formed by Dimitri’s son Menniker in response to the ban on technology that had been imposed after Dimitri’s supposed demise, and so they were only too happy to swear loyalty to Enerjak after he revealed his identity to their current leader, Kragok.

In very little time they had captured the Chaotix, Archimedes and his grandfather, Julie-Su, and Knuckles. Julie-Su was able to fast-talk her way into rejoining the Legion but felt conflicted about her loyalties now. The Chaotix were left to die in the desert, and Knuckles was disintegrated by Enerjak when he refused to join him.

It’s okay, he got better. Enerjak seemed unstoppable, at least until Mammoth Mogul, the one who had magicked Enerjak back from space in the first place, appeared and stole Enerjak’s power for himself. The newly empowered “Master Mogul” had to be defeated by Super Sonic, Hyper Knuckles, and Turbo Tails.

You know, I kind of miss this variant of Tails’ super form. I thought the red looked really good on him.

Our next villain team up is centred around the mass breakout of the dreaded prison, the Devil’s Gulag. In Sonic #62 Robo-Robotnik, who was still operating from the shadows in preparation for his full-scale re-taking of the planet, engineered a mass breakout of the prison right as Snively was boasting that he would escape.

Nack the Weasel (now more commonly known as Fang the Hunter these days), Drago Wolf, Sleuth Dawgy Dawg and Mammoth Mogul’s former henchmen, the Fearsome Foursome, gleefully set about taking down their captors. Snively mostly hid in terror during the battle, but the other villains mistakenly thought that he was the one who had released them and decided he should be their new leader.

They took the still-crystallised bodies of Kodos and Arachnis with them, which turned out to be very convenient as the two statues soon reverted to normal and joined Snively’s forces.

Under Snively’s orders they kidnapped Nate Morgan, hoping to force him to make technology and weapons for them. Nate was however rescued by Geoffrey St. John’s Secret Service, with Sonic and Prince Elias tagging along to help.

Most of the villains were recaptured although several escaped, and Snively was thought to have died in an explosion but had actually been captured by Robo-Robotnik.

Kodos and Arachnis continued to work together after this story, collaborating to steal the Sword of Acorns. They would later turn on each other though, and both died from radiation poisoning they were exposed to while hiding out in Robotropolis. Well, technically Kodos didn’t die of the radiation, even though he was driven insane by it…

This post has turned out a bit longer than I expected, so I think I'm going to have split it up. Next time, I'll be covering the villain team ups that happened during Ian Flynn's run on the ArchieSonic series. See you then!